Everything you need to know about iCloud Keychain

iCloud Keychain is Apple's password manager built into every Mac, iPhone, and iPad. It makes it much easier for you to create safe, complex passwords, which you can easily access while using Safari.

iCloud Keychain is Apple's attempt to bring password management to the mainstream. With it, your account names, passwords, and even credit cards numbers can be safely and securely stored on your Mac, iPhone or iPad keychain, and synced across all your devices thanks to iCloud. When you're using Safari, you can easily access passwords or auto fill shipping and credit card information. As of iOS 11, you can also access passwords stored in iCloud Keychain while in third-party apps. Here's everything you need to know about iCloud Keychain.

How to enable (or disable) iCloud Keychain

iCloud Keychain is a great program for creating, storing, and accessing your complex passwords. It's already built into your iPhone, iPad, and Mac so you've always got your passwords and credit card details at your fingertips. It's a good idea to have a secondary password manager as a backup, just in case something goes wrong with your iCloud Keychain data, but it's definitely the easiest method of creating, storing, and accessing your passwords and credit card details. Here's how to enable or disable it on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

How to generate a password with iCloud Keychain on your iPhone and iPad

In today's technology-driven world, we have dozens, if not hundreds of passwords to keep track of. It's easy to be tempted to use the same password over and over again, but that's exactly the opposite of what you should be doing. You can let iCloud Keychain create pseudo-random passwords for you when starting a new account in Safari on your iPhone and iPad, and then store those complex passwords in iCloud Keychain where they're easily accessible when you need them.

How to generate a password with iCloud Keychain on your Mac

Similar to creating pseudo-random passwords when using Safari on your iPhone and iPad, you can allow iCloud Keychain to do the same when you're browsing the internet in Safari on your Mac. Because it uses iCloud, all of your newly created passwords are stored in the cloud and synced across all of your devices. When you create and save a password on your Mac, it's stored on your iPhone and iPad, too.

How to manually add your personal and credit card information to iCloud Keychain on iPhone and iPad

iCloud Keychain is more than just a password manager. It also stores your credit card details and your personal data, like your shipping address and phone number. Once you set it up, you can use it to fill out forms and pay for items online without having to remember that long string of numbers. It even stores your credit cards' expiration dates so you only have to remember your card verification code. Three numbers is much easier to remember than 16.

How to manually add or remove personal and credit card info with iCloud Keychain on your Mac

If you buy something on your Mac while in Safari, and you have iCloud Keychain on, you'll be asked if you want to store your credit card information. It's the easiest way to get all of your credit card details into iCloud Keychain, but you can manually add or remove your card info as well. Just like your passwords, your credit card details will be stored in iCloud and synced across all of your devices, so you have access to them everywhere you go until you decide to remove them.

How to access and view your iCloud Keychain passwords

The point of iCloud Keychain is to make it easy for you to fill out passwords in Safari and some apps, but there will always be times when you need a password and you're not trying to log into a website or an app. Don't worry, your passwords aren't hidden from you. They're stored on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac in your Passwords tab. You can copy and paste your login name and password to use wherever you need to.

How to delete saved passwords and credit cards from iCloud Keychain on your iPhone and iPad

So you stopped using that photo editing service and no longer need the log in credentials. Or maybe you got a new credit card to replace the old one and it has a completely different number. No problem. You can delete saved passwords and credit card data so that they are no longer stored in iCloud Keychain. Remember, since it's in iCloud, it syncs across all of your devices. If you delete it from iCloud Keychain on your iPhone, it also disappears from your Mac.

How to stop iCloud Keychain from storing and auto-filling credit cards or passwords in Safari

Even though you may love the ability to create, store, and access your passwords across all of your devices thanks to iCloud Keychain, you may not want all of the features the service provides, like auto-filling and autosaving your personal and credit card information. If, for example, you share your Mac with your roommate, or your iPad with your kids, you probably don't want them to be able to use your account details to log into your social media sites or buy stuff on Amazon. You can keep your passwords stored in iCloud without using the autofill and autosave features that come along with it.